


The Beach Escapade: or How the Pink Monstrosity Came About

by saferinthestatic



Series: The Pink Monstrosity and other stories [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Not very shippy sorry, takes place after grant ward has his shit together as a person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 14:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1308403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saferinthestatic/pseuds/saferinthestatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant Ward wouldn't mind if he never went to the beach again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beach Escapade: or How the Pink Monstrosity Came About

Grant Ward knew that going to the beach was a bad idea. It hadn’t been so bad at first; surfing was enjoyable, as was the sight of Skye and May in their bikinis (he’d mention Simmons’ bathing suit too, but Fitz’s jealous glare aimed at any male staring in her direction made Ward wonder if their relationship was as platonic as they both insisted). Meanwhile, Coulson beamed cheerfully at the surfing (or crashing, if your name happens to be Leopold Fitz) team from a beach lounge chair. Phil Coulson was the only person that Ward knew that would wear a suit to the beach.

The first sign of trouble came when Fitz found that child’s large orange plastic bucket on one of his many breaks from the surf. He called to both Simmons and Skye, who pulled themselves out of the waves and huddled up with Fitz, whispering and giggling. He succeded in ignoring their conspiring, surfing uninterrupted until Coulson gave a shout. In his haste, Ward fell off his surfboard into the waves, gargling seawater as he counted the seconds that the beating ocean cost him and the team. By the time he escaped the ocean’s grasp, everyone was laughing. Ward retrieved his rental surfboard and trudged out of the water, curious to see what all the fuss was about. Coulson was covered in sand clearly dumped upon him. Simmons held the bucket used to do the deed and she, Fitz, and Skye were doubled over laughing. May looked on, smirking.

“Ward, are you okay?”, Skye asked, probably inwardly laughing, even though she showed no outward sign. “It looked like you took quite a tumble.”

“I’m fine”, Ward scoffed, “Why is Coulson covered in sand?”

“I didn’t think it was fair that I was covered in sand and Coulson was all pristine”, Fitz sulked, “So I found that bucket and Skye and Simmons helped me fill it up to prank Coulson.”

“Dumping sand isn’t much of a prank”, May murmured. Unable to control himself, Ward laughed.

“It’s not about how complicated the prank is,” Simmons explained, “It’s how fun it is. And dumping sand on Coulson, while not the most polite thing to do, was rather fun.”

“I bet it wasn’t fun for Coulson”, Ward remarked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Coulson smiled as he stood up and brushed himself off, “I have plenty of suits back on the Bus. I won’t miss this one when it’s in the wash.”

With that assurance, the team split up again. May made a suave and measured beeline for the surf. Fitzsimmons quickly began talking excitedly as they walked toward the boardwalk, about what, Ward was glad not to know. After he verified that his lounge chair was clean, Coulson sat right back down with his book and his sunglasses. Skye also walked towards the shore, but slowly, and with much less purpose than May had.Ward was also ready to get back in the water, but he had to take precautions first. Ward had brought a suit for the time he spent out of the water today, but he wasn’t planning to wear it at the beach, like some people he may or may not mention. He had left it lying on a beach towel because he hadn’t figured on certain people getting child’s plastic bucket happy. Swiftly, he picked up his suit and stuffed it into the tote bag that he’d been forced to drag along, like he was some young father toting around toddlers.

“Are you hiding your clothes?”, Skye asked incredulously. She must have snuck up behind him while he was picking up his clothes.

“Yeah,” Ward said while unconsciously jutting out his chest, “I’m not Coulson. I will definitely mind if you guys pour sand on my suit.”

“Well, I pinky promise not to pour sand on your suit.” Skye smiled as she extended her hand out to Ward, pinky outstretched. Nervous about the deal, Ward looked for loopholes in Skye’s smile and found none, but decided to verify just in case her secrets slipped past him.

“Do you also promise not to have Fitzsimmons pour sand on my suit?”

“Sure,” Skye shrugged with a disarming ease and Ward’s shields were knocked down like wooden walls in the face of a tornado.

“Fine,” Ward extended his own arm awkwardly, only remembering to actually extend the pinky at the last moment, “Pinky promise”. They shook their pinkies and went in opposite directions: Skye bounced in Coulson’s direction, hopefully to apologize and Ward finally went back to the ocean to surf. He shouldn’t have done that. As Ward surfed, Skye went to exploit the major loophole that Ward had left open. And when that failed, she did the most childish thing that she could think of.

Several hours later, the team had their fill of sun and sand and sea; at least May had her fill, which was effectively the same thing. Ward reluctantly brought the surfboards back to the rental place, walking past the palatial sandcastle that Fitzsimmons had built once Simmons had convinced Fitz that sand wasn’t all bad and Fitzsimmons themselves as they lounged against their creation while eating cotton candy. He walked past Coulson, who was exactly where he’d been when Simmons had dumped sand all over him. By the time that Ward walked back sans surfboards, Coulson had brushed himself off , the women had put on cover-up dresses, and everyone was gathered together like some family getting ready for a group shot.Ward picked up the tote bag and the group walked to the boardwalk. When they reached the boardwalk, Ward paused, smelling something strange. He reached into the bag and pulled out his suit, which was soaking and covered in seaweed.

“Skye!”He thought that she was done antagonizing him and hadn’t been so disappointed to be wrong in quite some time.

“You never said that I couldn’t dunk your suit in the ocean, so I did.” Skye’s face fell when she saw how upset Ward was. “Come on, Grant,” she elbowed him playfully, “You’re slightly less grumpy when you’re out of your suit, so I figured a longer break from it would do you some good.” Ward hated how much like a puppy she looked when she smiled at him like that.

“He can’t go to the restaurant without a shirt on,” May said flatly, “Skye, come with me.” May escorted Skye out of sight. While the team waited for them to return, Fitzsimmons babbled, Coulson beamed with a little less vigor than normal, and Ward silently worried about what May was saying to or doing with Skye. As soon as May and Skye reappeared, the latter holding a plastic bag, he gave a little sigh of relief.

“May made me buy you a new t-shirt,” Skye smirked, “But she let me pick it out.” She pulled the shirt out of the bag and Ward recoiled in horror. Skye was holding a bright dark pink shirt with “Someone in Sydney loves me” written above a teddy bear with its arms outstretched. Fitz started laughing first, then Skye joined in. Soon Coulson and Simmons were laughing and Ward was mortified.

“Do I have to wear the shirt?”, Ward asked.

May shrugged as an apology:“The restaurant has a no shirt, no service policy.”

Ward groaned and put on the shirt. Skye whipped out her phone and took about fifteen pictures in as many seconds. She continued to take pictures throughout dinner and until they got back to the Bus and Ward yanked the pink monstrosity off. Ward might have seen her take a couple pictures of him without his shirt on too, but he wasn’t sure.

“What are you going to do with those pictures?”, asked Ward warily.

“Don’t worry about it,” Skye assured him, giving him her most evil smile.

“Get changed because you need to do 100 pushups before you’re allowed to go to bed,” Ward smirked and threw the pink monstrosity at her.

“If that’s you trying to get me back, you have failed drastically,” Skye laughed, “Keep the shirt, though. It looks good on you.” Skye threw the pink monstrosity back and bounced to her bunk and Ward was worried about what she was planning to do with those pictures.

The next morning, Ward found somewhere around one hundred pictures of him in the pink monstrosity placed in strategic places around the Bus: the lab, above his bed, the training room, and there was even one above his bed. A note Skye left on his bedside table made clear that these were revenge for the extra pushups he made her do for no reason. That didn’t make him feel any better.

Next time Coulson’s team has a day off, Grant Ward wants to go to a museum.

 

 

 


End file.
